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Energyhelpline said energy firms are sitting on a mountain of credit raked in from over billing customers, and will squeeze families further by hiking prices as the cold weather arrives.

Gas and electricity regulator OFGEM define ‘back-billing’ as a ‘catch-up’ bills sent to you by your gas or electricity supplier when you haven’t been correctly charged for your energy use.

OFGEM state on their website that the customer can no longer be charged additional payments for un-billed energy used more than 12 months prior to the error being detected and a corrected bill being issued.

The end of back-billing is good news for consumers who are struggling to get back their own money from the big six suppliers with £1.4bn of customers' money is currently sitting in their accounts.

Figures from Energyhelpline claim a total of £1.4bn of customers’ money is currently sitting in the Big Six bank accounts when rightly it should be given back to the customer.

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With an estimated 28 million UK households, every single household in the UK is in credit by an average of £50.

Victoria Arrington, spokeswoman of Energyhelpline, said: "Energy companies which are raking in billions of pounds a year shouldn’t be holding customers money ‘in credit’ or back-billing over long periods of time.

“It is morally wrong. When customers switch they are due the money owing to them and likewise if people use less energy than was estimated, the difference should be given back automatically. That money could really benefit some families and others who are deciding whether to heat or eat this winter.”

New Ofgem rules are coming in May hopes to stop energy suppliers from back-billing for any more than 12 months.

But Mark Todd from Energyhelpine says a fairer, more regulated system needs to be introduced in order to stop the energy suppliers profiting from their loyal customers.

Last week a Whitehall source told the Guardian E.ON’s price rise, announced on the coldest spring day on record, was just “another example of the big six unfairly attacking customers on standard variable tariffs”.

Around a million households now face higher bills for gas and electricity after the big-six power firm’s price hike.

The average annual increase will be £22 for those on a fixed rate, but one in four households on the firm’s standard variable tariff (SVT) will have to pay an extra £50 a year.